Now Playing: Bon Jovi – New Jersey

I always dig out the Jovi when it’s sunny and it has been sunny here for some time now, which means lots of Jovi has been playing. And New Jersey is peak Jovi, the band at the height of their powers. Jon Bon Jovi’s voice is as powerful as it ever got here and Sambora’s guitar is deadly, belting out classic riffs like the drop-D stunner in Lay Your Hands On Me. I like the way the album mixes up Cinderella-style rootsiness with a massive Lep-esque production too. The album gets a bit too drippy at points but songs like Bad Medicine, Blood On Blood and Born To Me Baby are just irresistible.

(This is the deluxe box version which has lots of rare stuff too but I’ve just been listening to the album proper this week)

Here comes cantankerous uncle. I have just never allowed Bon Jovi across my mental threshold. I’m a little older than all of you preaching-to-the-choir advocates here and that’s literally my only excuse. It’s all probably down to the same way in which folks just a bit older than me would never give KISS a chance no matter what arguments I made, or what tunes I played. I just can’t make room. All that said, I can be happy for you all being happy. I’m not that far gone yet.

Definitely an age factor in it with me cause some of my first music purchases were Jovi. I don’t like their whole career but you can’t really go wrong with albums like this, and Sambora’s guitar has always been a big draw for me too.

So, this album is the one I should listen to, is it? I was listening to some compilation the other day… genuinely horrible at times, but I did like the big numbers I knew from way back… Keep the Faith and Living On A Prayer and suchlike…

Haha what was the genuinely horrible stuff? I think your safest starting here then, if you want more, you can edge out in either direction to Slippery and Keep The Faith. Keep edging out until the horrible outweighs the good! You’ll probably find every album has a song or two that’s difficult to stomach though.